My new kitchen? (where abs are made)

Guess what we did last night? We put an offer down on the short sale house. I have learned a ton of real estate jargon in the past few weeks which I won’t bore you with, but if you don’t know (I didn’t), a short sale is when the seller has to sell the house for less than they owe on it. So, the bank has to approve the offer. Banks, especially bigger ones, are notorious for dragging their feet, so it could be months before we hear anything. We don’t really have anything to lose though. We can walk anytime if the bank is taking too long and not lose a cent.

We didn’t leave the realtor’s office until almost nine and I was about to chew my arm off. It just so happened that I had a Groupon in my purse for Raging Burrito which was right down the street. Since we were sort of celebrating that we might have just bought a house, I ordered a margarita. But only ended up drinking about a third of it. I guess I wasn’t in full-on celebration mode with everything still up in the air and it being Monday and all. With my drink that I didn’t drink, I ordered the Frisco Taco Salad with romaine lettuce instead of tortilla chips. I probably should have asked for it without cheese, but I didn’t. I ate about 2/3rds of this. It was smaller than it looks in the picture.

I haven’t really mastered the art of taking pictures in dark restaurants yet.

And now for something completely unrelated: bikinis. I know some people feel like it’s taboo to talk about weight loss, but I am not one of those people and I’m going to discuss it. So please stop reading if these type of things bother you. (But please return tomorrow!)

I’m going on my honeymoon on July 6th. We’re going to Maui (!!!!) and we’re obviously going to be spending some time on the beach. I don’t like the way I look in a bathing suit. It’s not to the point where I wear a t-shirt in the ocean or anything, but I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t think this is a case of distorted body image; I honestly don’t think my body looks good in a bathing suit, especially a bikini. And I want to look damn good on my honeymoon. Problem is that I really have no idea where to start. I don’t care that much about the number on the scale, I just want to go wear cute bathing suits.

I’ve always heard that abs are made in the kitchen. So, I went to Borders at lunch with a 33% off coupon and camped out for a little bit in the diet section. Truth be told, I am sucker for these types of books. I purchased what I thought to be one of the less gimmicky of the bunch, The Eat-Clean Diet Supercharged by Tosca Reno. I haven’t really looked at it yet, but somehow I don’t think it advocates (oops, I wrote avocado) eating at places with “Burrito” in the title.

Superbowl Runday

I set out this afternoon to run a better 8-mile run than last Sunday. I didn’t have any alcohol last night and I got a decent amount of sleep. I plotted out what I thought was going to be a less hilly course. It wasn’t. I guess Atlanta is just hilly. If I really want to run a flat course, I need to drive a half hour to the Silver Comet Trail which I don’t like to run on alone. Despite walking up a lot of hills, I beat last week’s time by 4 minutes. Woo hoo.

I’m not kidding about walking up all the hills. I am a total wimp when it comes to hills. See where the blue line dips about once every 15 minutes, that’s where I walked.

So, I’m pleased that I beat last week’s time even with the walking. And I just picked a better route. I ran through Virginia-Highlands and Little 5 Points, which are both full of stores and restaurants and make for a fun run. Here are my mile splits:

Mile 1 – 12;15 (uphill plus I’m always slow in the first mile)
Mile 2 – 12:45
Mile 3 – 11:35
Mile 4 – 12:16
Mile 5 – 11:51
Mile 6 – 10:42
Mile 7 – 11:05
Mile 8 – 9:21

I am the queen of negative splits. I really pushed myself on that last mile. 9:21 is extremely fast for me! I am pretty pleased with that. Granted, it was downhill, but I’ll still take it, especially being the last mile of a pretty long run. My average pace was 11:29 which is exactly how fast my training plan had me running. Weird coincidence, huh?

After my run, I had the choice of taking a very hyper dog on a long walk or to the dog park. I chose the park because I figured I’d had enough exercise for the day. It’s always a struggle to get Murphy to the park. Really, the struggle is getting him in the car. He hates the car. I don’t know why. We always take him somewhere fun in it. We can walk to the vet, so he doesn’t associate the car with that. I don’t know what it is. Maybe something in his previous life before we got him? He has to be seriously coaxed into the car. And then he won’t relax. Especially in my car. He’s better in Jason’s which is bigger. He stands the entire time and loses his footing when I stop the car at a light or stop sign. At least he’s stopped throwing up. He used to puke every time we drove anywhere. Do your dogs like the car? Aren’t they supposed to? Murph’s definitely a character.

I’m glad that we went because now I have a tired (and muddy) dog, so I can have a low-key evening.

Need veggies

I think my body was screaming for vegetables today. I don’t think I had a single one yesterday. Oops. Jason and I ended up going to a gastropub for dinner. I ordered the mussels and helped myself to a fair amount of Jason’s fries. I love mussels. Chances are that if a restaurant serves them, and they’re not in some sort of cream sauce, that’s what I’m going to order. After dinner, we met up with two of Jason’s friends and went to Sauced, which is a lounge-y type restaurant near their apartment. It’s fairly new, but we were the only people there! I think they need to work on their advertising or something. They kept saying that it’s normally pretty happening, but it was like eleven o’clock on a Friday night and we were the only ones there. They also didn’t take credit cards which is a pain in the ass. I guess eventually they will, but it’s really a deterrent. I can see a dive-bar type place taking cash only, but this was kind of a pricey restaurant. After that, my pumpkin-itis (where I turn into a pumpkin) hit pretty quickly and we went home.

My knee was sort of achy today. It didn’t hurt, but it was just sore. I’ve never injured myself from running, and I don’t think this is an actual injury, but I didn’t want to risk it so I did the elliptical instead of the 2-miler that I was supposed to do. I also did a leg workout:

walking lunges – 2 sets of 10 on each leg
wall squats on a stability ball – 3 sets of 12
hamstring curls on a stability ball – 3 sets of 10
donkey kicks – 2 sets of 15 on each leg
fire hydrants – 2 sets of 15 on each leg
seated leg extension – 3 sets of 12, 50 lbs
calf extension – 3 sets of 12, don’t remember the weight

In hindsight it was probably not the wisest decision to work out my legs the night before a long run, but it needed to be done. I don’t think I was too hard on myself so hopefully I won’t be sore tomorrow. And hopefully my knee will feel okay.

Those vegetables finally found their way into my mouth at dinner time. I threw together an easy meal of sauteed 3-pepper and onion mix, spinach, refried beans and salsa.

With my meal, I had a Passionberry Kombucha. My thing with Kombucha is that I really do like the taste of some of the fruity flavors, but I don’t like strands of raw Kombucha, which I call floaters. So, I got a strainer and strained the drink. And it totally worked! Success. No more floaters.

I’m about to catch up on some Project Runway. I thought I’d leave you with this. Murphy says, “Get that thing out of my face. I’m pretending that I have no front legs (I really do though.)”

Why Georgia, Why?

No, not Erin on the ninja vs. pirate question, it was me:) Ok on a more serious level, how did you end up in Atlanta??? Do you like it?

If you’d asked me ten years ago, I would never in a million years said that I would ever be living in Georgia! Sometimes I tell people that I moved here for a job; it’s just easier to explain and seems more logical.

In actuality, there’s not much to it. I moved to Atlanta for no reason whatsoever and seven and half years later, I’m still here. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that, I guess. I went to college in Vermont. When I graduated, I applied for several internships in Boston but I didn’t get any. I did, however, get an internship in my hometown of Bethesda, MD. So I moved back home. I think everyone has a hard time getting used to the daily grind of a 9-5 job after college. I didn’t deal with it well though. Most of my friends from school were in New England or New York and although I was still friends with some high school buddies, we’d spent four years apart and we’d all changed. My internship lasted about three months. I wanted them to hire me on, but they didn’t. Looking back, I can completely see why. I was much more interested in making friends with the other interns than working! (The company folded eventually anyway.) So I got a job in a restaurant to make ends meet and to meet more people. I was living at home for free, but really wanted to get an apartment with a friend.

After a few months, I got my first real job. I was a graphic designer for the marketing art department of a newspaper. Sounds way cooler than it was. There are two major newspapers in DC. Actually, I take that back, there’s really just one. I worked for the other one. I moved into an apartment with my friend Margaret in a suburb. I had a job in DC, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I hated my job. I hated living in the ‘burbs. I just wanted a change.

It’s funny that I thought my friend Erin wrote that ninja question, because she has a lot to do with my journey to Atlanta. Erin and I were really good friends in high school and she had gone to Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. I’d visited her a few times and really liked the city. Somehow, I got it in my head that I wanted to move here. For a while, I talked about it but it was just talk and no one took me seriously. I tried to look for jobs but couldn’t find anyone who was willing to interview a newspaper graphic designer who didn’t live in the area. I went back and forth with what I wanted to do. Some days, I was dead-set on moving. Others, I would think that if I just got a new job, I’d stay in DC. When our apartment lease was up, I didn’t want to be tied down for another year, so I moved back in with my mother.

I’m not sure how all my Atlanta talk actually became a reality. Erin was looking for a roommate and once I realized that I would have a place to live, I quit my job and just did it. I put all of my stuff into a U-haul and made the 11-hour drive with my father and brother. I know it was much more of a lengthy process than that, but honestly, I don’t remember!

Moving to a new city was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I thought that all of Erin’s friends would immediately be my friends, but that didn’t happen. I thought I’d find a job right away, but that didn’t happen either. I had to wait tables for six months or so. I had saved up quite a bit of money from living with my mom rent-free, so I had a bit of a cushion, but it was quickly dwindling. After a while, I got another graphic design job and things started to fall into place, albeit slowly.

I’m not sure when I felt like I really belonged in Atlanta. Throughout the years, I’ve made a lot of friends here and I do feel like it’s my home. (Although I still refer to MD as home as well.) The 5 million dollar question remains; will I stay in Atlanta forever? I mean, considering we’re trying to buy a house, we don’t have any plans to leave. That’s not to say that we never will. I do miss my family and it’s hard to be 500 + miles away from them and only see them a few times a year. If all the stars aligned a certain way and Jason and were both offered great jobs in DC, I’d probably think long and hard about moving back. But for now, we enjoy our lives in Atlanta and aren’t really going anywhere.

Boy, that was a long answer to a seemingly simple question, huh?

So, those little pizza slices just didn’t do it for me last night. I was just having one of those ravenous days. Maybe from hot yoga the night before. I made the unwise decision of eating at least 2.5 servings of Go Lean Crunch. Fiber overload! My stomach was not pleased with me after that and I did not go to the gym to run my 6-mile tempo run like planned. But no fear, I went today after work and pounded it out on the treadmill. I ran the 4-mile tempo portion at a 6.1 pace and a 1 mile warm up and cool down at a 5.5 pace. I like tempo and speedwork days because the time really flies by. I did three miles on one treadmill, got off and filled up my water bottle and did the remaining three on another. That really broke up the run and I kept telling myself that I only had to run three miles (for each portion). I have an eight mile run to do on Sunday. I am going to plan a different route and I’m really curious what the difference in time will be from last weekend.

Ps – I kind of hate John Mayer. I just thought that song would make a good post title.

Pizza and Photography

Okay, I’m watching the Teen Mom reunion and why is Dr. Drew telling Maci and Ryan that they can work it out? Ryan is obviously an ass and she’s way too good for him.

Oops, that just came out. How old am I, again?

It was rainy and gross out today and pizza was in order. It was actually not on a pita tonight if you can believe it.

I bought Trader Joe’s white dough and rolled it out on my pizza stone. I normally buy whole wheat dough, but bought regular white flour dough this time because Jason prefers it. I like the way whole wheat tastes, but I think I like the white dough a bit better. If I were the only one eating it, I would buy the wheat but since Jason doesn’t like it, I figured it’s really not such a big deal to get the refined flour every so often. Do you prefer white or whole wheat flour? Or something completely different like spelt?

I covered the pizza with marinara sauce, spinach, a bit of mozzarella and some crumbled goat cheese.

This was really good! I love the way the goat cheese gets all melty in the middle.

It was very hard to stop at two slices. In fact, I had half of another slice. But then I put it in the fridge. How does that pizza dough make eight servings?

While the quality of the pizza was high, I feel that the quality of the photos of the pizza was not! But, guess what? I signed up for a photography class that starts in the beginning of March. It’s called Digital 101 and it’s a 6-week course for people with digital SLR cameras.

I feel like besides running and blogging, I don’t have any other hobbies. Hopefully, this class will change that and I’ll become more of a photographer. What are your hobbies?

Hot Yoga, Take Two

I finally got the nerve to use my hot yoga gift certificate that Jason bought me for Christmas. I don’t know why going to the class by myself made me nervous, but it did. I was originally going to go with a co-worker, but she forgot her workout clothes. For a minute, I started making excuses in my head for why I couldn’t go either. But then I snapped back to reality and told myself that I am 31 years old; I can walk into a yoga class alone. So I did. And it was fine.

Not too much to report about the class itself except that I was a sweaty mofo by the end of it. I’m going to go once a week for 10 weeks (what the GC covers) and I’m really curious to see how my body changes between now and then. Right now, I am quite possibly the least flexible person on the face of the earth so I’m hoping to see at least a slight improvement. Seriously, I cannot touch my toes AT ALL. Like If I’m sitting up, reaching forward to touch them, it doesn’t even look like I’m reaching forward. I think my lack of hamstring flexibility is part of the reason that I can’t seem to ever become a faster runner. I read an article about that once; something about tight hamstrings causing a small stride causing the runner to expend more energy. Or something. I also think it would be pretty cool to look like one of those people that you just know does yoga. You know what I mean? I’m pretty sure that this is not going to happen to me as I am kind of lanky and curvy at the same time but not thin and muscular. That wasn’t a putdown to myself, I just don’t build muscle easily. Whatevs. It’s a good workout and I enjoyed it.

I stopped at TJ’s on my way home. As I drove home from the store, I tore into a box of Go Lean Crunch. Argh. I don’t know why I do this. So, by the time I got home, I wasn’t even that hungry because I was stuffing my face with cereal in the car. I had some hummus and an Arnold Thin and called it a night. Not the best dinner, by any means. I am used to eating dinner pretty early, around 6, and by the time I left TJ’s, it was already a bit after 8. I like routine, damnit. No routine = major snacky Lee. So, no pictures for you. I’m quite sure that everyone reading this knows what a tub of hummus looks like.

Would you rather be a pirate or a ninja?
Erin, did you write this one? Ummm, ninja so I wouldn’t get seasick.

You have questions, I’ve got answers

Here are some questions that I received from my anonymous question box. Feel free to ask more!

I know you’re a runner, but what’s your favorite form of exercise?
Umm, sitting on the couch and surfing the web? Does that count? Honestly, I don’t know that I have a favorite form of exercise. I do like to ski and snowboard but I’m not very good at either one and living in Georgia kind of makes it hard to get any practice in. I like hiking but for whatever reason, I don’t do it very often. I also sometimes take pilates classes at my gym.
I’m a really good example of how you can make exercise a habit without really liking it. Yes, I run around 20 miles a week, but I’m not one of those people who’s just dying to get outside for a run. I do it because it’s good for me, because I feel good afterward and because I like to set goals for myself and accomplish them. I run for those reasons rather than for the love of the sport. That’s not to say that I never love it, there certainly times when I do, but the majority of the time I’m just like, “Ugh, I have to run again?” I’ve often thought about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. What do you think? Do you actually like to exercise? Are you enjoying yourself while you’re doing it?

What’s your favorite movie?
I like sort of romantic indie dramas. Think: Garden State, (500) Days of Summer, Reality Bites.
I also have always loved Dazed & Confused. It reminds me of high school. Not so much that my high school was like the one in the movie, but that my friends and I were obsessed with that movie in high school and watched it all the freakin’ time.

What’s one food you won’t eat?
The first thing that comes to mind is Bleu Cheese. I really don’t like any sort of stinky cheese. I have broadened my cheese horizons a little bit and in the past few years began to really like feta, goat cheese and very mild brie, but other than that, I like very basic cheeses – cheddar, mozzarella, jack.
I also hate French and Thousand Island salad dressing.

What’s your favorite food and drink?
I just couldn’t narrow my favorite food down to one. So here is a top ten in no particular order.

1. hummus
2. salsa
3. pizza
4. avocados
5. bread
6. scrambled eggs
7. soft serve ice cream
8. shrimp
9. Maryland blue crab
10. pineapple

Unfortunately, my favorite non-alcoholic drink is diet coke. I’ve tried to quit it a million times, but I always keep coming back for more. Diet crack. Other than diet coke, I mainly drink water.

If we’re talking alcoholic drinks, I usually find myself ordering a glass of white wine although I like beer too. I don’t order mixed drinks very often. If I were to pick a favorite out of those three categories, it’d be:
wine – savignon blanc
beer – stella artois
liquor drink – vodka and soda with a splash of cranberry juice
One thing that you will never see me ordering is gin. I think it tastes like trees.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I’ve always had a fondness for London. One of my best friends moved there after ninth grade and I visited her three times during the rest of of high school. We used to write each other long letters and hers really romanticized the city and it’s something that I’ve never let go of. I studied there for a semester during my junior year of college and had the time of my life.

Pizza and posture

One of my favorite easy dinners is to make my own pizza. I normally call them “Pita Pizzas” even though I usually use a tortilla or flatout. Pita pizza just has a better ring to it. I almost always have some sort of tortilla (or pita), random veggies, cheese and pasta sauce in the house and it’s just really easy to throw it all together. Viola.I mean Voila. I hate when people write “viola” and I totally just did it. His and hers pizzas. The closer one was the hers; his had more cheese. I actually do measure my cheese. I find that if I’m just eyeballing, I give myself less than one serving. And I definitely want one serving!

Is my pizza stone supposed to look that…seasoned?

So, let’s talk about posture. Like I said earlier, mine is terrible. I am almost always hunched over in front of my computer or slouched down in a chair. How can I correct this? I sometimes try to sit up tall, but it’s hard and laziness gets the best of me. Maybe I should bring a balance ball in for a chair at work ? Okay, maybe not. But really, I don’t want to shrink as I age! What do I do? I am going to start doing yoga, maybe that will help me.

We heard some not-so-great news about the house. It’s a short sale. I wasn’t familiar with the term but apparently it’s kind of like a pre-foreclosure and according to the interwebs, a complete pain in the ass to deal with as a buyer. It’s not a complete no-go yet, we’re waiting on our realtor (who is on vacation) to answer some questions. I wish buying a house was more like buying a pair of jeans. You go into the store, try some on, and buy the ones that you like.

Bah! Boring post. Want to shake things up and ask me a question?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

And I have writer’s block.

Ask me anything! It’s anonymous.

Lead Legs

I finished my 8 mile run about an hour ago. I was seriously dragging and my time shows that.

I attribute my slow time to the following factors:

1. I picked an extremely hilly route.
2. I drank a little bit last night. Not a lot, by any means, but I typically don’t drink at all before my long runs.
3. I ran too soon after I ate lunch.
4. It was just one of those runs.

Here are my mile splits:

1 – 11:36
2 – 11:22
3 – 11:50
4 – 11:03
5 – 13:18 (there was some walking here)
6 – 11:15
7 – 12:36 (more walking)
8 – 12:09 (more walking again)

It’s not the fact that I was running slowly that made the run crappy; I just never got into it. Oh well. Maybe this means my next long run will be great. I will not pick this route, that’s for sure. I actually stopped at Target between miles 2 and 3 to get some Gatorade and some sort of food to fuel me through the run. I thought I bought G2, but turns out it was regular ol’ Gatorade. I actually prefer to use GU or some sort of gel when I run because I find that if I’m chewing something, I have the tendency to choke on it. Apparently I cannot run and chew at the same time. They didn’t have GU though, so I bought those Powerbar Gel Blasts. I like these better than other chewy brands because they aren’t as sticky and don’t get stuck in your teeth. And hey look, you can click here for a free sample!

I had a busy, but fun weekend. I got to see a lot of my friends. For various reasons, I didn’t really socialize much in January, so it was really nice to see everyone. Last night, we went to No Mas Cantina for dinner. Check out my friend with his pitcher of margarita!

I did not partake in any margarita action and had a Corona Light instead. I just have a very hard time justifying the calories in a margarita. I’ll have one on occasion, but last night was not that occasion.

I did partake in the chips and guacamole. I just cannot help myself at a Mexican restaurant. I always end up eating way too many chips and then am not even that hungry by the time my meal comes around. Last night, I ordered the enchiladas de espinaca. They were good, but I wasn’t crazy about the cream sauce on top. I should of asked for them without that. Dinner was good, but two of my friends and I felt kind of sick afterward. I don’t know if we just ate too much, or it was too heavy or what, but I felt like I had a big rock in my stomach.

After dinner, I stopped by The Bookhouse Pub to have a drink with another friend who was celebrating his birthday. I was not really in the mood to drink anymore, but I sipped on a glass of wine and chit-chatted with people for about an hour and went home. Fun times, fun times!

Now it’s time for blog, cook, laundry which is the working girl’s version of GTL. Aww, I miss Snooki now. I don’t know what to do with my Thursdays anymore.

For dinner, I made Baked Tofu Bites. I’ve had this recipe bookmarked forever and realized that I had all of the ingredients to make it. Surprisingly, I even had sesame seeds. I didn’t use Liquid Smoke. I don’t like it.

It’s a keeper. The tofu was chewy and flavorful and it was incredibly easy to make. I love it when I find a good tofu recipe.

Well, I gotta get to the laundry portion of BCL. Have a good Sunday night.